1985 RAC Rally Pics - Lancia Delta S4, 6R4 etc
Discussion
there is a facebook group called Lombard RAC rally. Join it and share these pics they members will wet themselves with excitement.
great pics. interesting that pondie appears to be on gravel tyres but the lancias on slicks? I'm guessing this was taken at teh mid way rest halt, may have just done donington?
great pics. interesting that pondie appears to be on gravel tyres but the lancias on slicks? I'm guessing this was taken at teh mid way rest halt, may have just done donington?
Marvellous stuff. I remember staying up late every night to watch the excellent nightly BBC rally reports, usually hosted by a be-anoraked William Wollard or Tony Mason standing in a damp service area. I may even have some of them on old VHSs somewhere.
Minor beardage: The Mikael Sundström T16 was an E1 (note lack of extra aero - and the differences were much more than skin deep) run by Peugeot Sport UK.
Minor beardage: The Mikael Sundström T16 was an E1 (note lack of extra aero - and the differences were much more than skin deep) run by Peugeot Sport UK.
TVR Moneypit said:
Thanks, I`ve just watched all 5 days. It was just like I was there !
TVR Moneypit said:
Me too, at the Chatsworth stages.
As an eight year old child a practically wet myself with excitement at the sound of the screaming V6's in the 6R4's
OP, great photos, thanks for sharing.
I`m just a bit older than you, my Mk1 Escort did some miles that weekend.As an eight year old child a practically wet myself with excitement at the sound of the screaming V6's in the 6R4's
OP, great photos, thanks for sharing.
Edited by TVR Moneypit on Sunday 18th March 01:47
anonymous said:
[redacted]
No probs, the originals have their own quality, of their time - regardless of the colour balance etc, they're an amazing set of pics, thanks for sharing them.To have those cars grouped together there in one place - that'll almost certainly never happen again. Wonder what the total value of would be today - any idea?
ReverendCounter said:
To have those cars grouped together there in one place - that'll almost certainly never happen again. Wonder what the total value of would be today - any idea?
Probably less than what they cost the manufacturers at the time. Genuine ex works T16s almost never come up for sale, I guess the last was Ari Vatanen's 1985 Monte Carlo and Sweden winning car which must be the most desirable one by far. That was up for auction a year or two back at 6-800,000 Euro estimate but I'm not sure whether it sold.
I think the Sundstrom car was built with a privateer spec parts kit, albeit built by Peugeot UK.
S4s seem to be more available than others. The last price I found for one was 400,000 Euros for an ex works test car without WRC history but that was a couple of years ago.
A lot of the more obscure stuff like the 240RS probably suffers from severe kite flying from sellers.
Edited by bloomen on Sunday 18th March 18:57
Edited by bloomen on Sunday 18th March 19:01
TVR Moneypit said:
Aloysius said:
Superb pics !
I was there too !
Me too, at the Chatsworth stages.I was there too !
As an eight year old child a practically wet myself with excitement at the sound of the screaming V6's in the 6R4's
OP, great photos, thanks for sharing.
Edited by TVR Moneypit on Sunday 18th March 01:47
This thread brings back memories. I was in the service crew for this Nissan 240RS during that event.
That was very tough going for everyone,we had to work on the car,including changing a gearbox in places like this!!
If my memory is correct it was almost non stop for us service crews. From Sunday morning till Thursday afternoon We spent ONE civilized night in a hotel.
Those were the days......and it was great fun.
Old Merc said:
This thread brings back memories. I was in the service crew for this Nissan 240RS during that event.
That was very tough going for everyone,we had to work on the car,including changing a gearbox in places like this!!
If my memory is correct it was almost non stop for us service crews. From Sunday morning till Thursday afternoon We spent ONE civilized night in a hotel.
Those were the days......and it was great fun.
I recall getting a total of 11 hours sleep between start and finish, and as you say, only one night in a bed, BnB (for us near the back) in Carlisle I think? I still get teased by some of the guys on the rare occasion we meet up for doing the comedy routine at our end of event dinner in Nottingham on the Wed eve, when I fell asleep at the dinner table and my head fell forward into my dessert bowl........I was that exhausted
It was my first of 6 x RAC Rally's I did as service crew.
As can be seen in a few of those OP's photo's, '85 RAC was the last event for the Escort and Sunbeam prior to their homologation running out. We had at least 3 motorclub members all with Grp.A Sunbeam Ti's that all begged, borrowed and whatever else they could do, to raise the funds to enter the RAC that year as it was their last and likely only shot at it.
As you say, happy days.
aeropilot said:
Likewise, I was crewing chase car for a guy in my motorclub running a Grp N Corolla GT AE86....but buggered if I can remember what number Tom was running that year.....100-and-something.
I recall getting a total of 11 hours sleep between start and finish, and as you say, only one night in a bed, BnB (for us near the back) in Carlisle I think? I still get teased by some of the guys on the rare occasion we meet up for doing the comedy routine at our end of event dinner in Nottingham on the Wed eve, when I fell asleep at the dinner table and my head fell forward into my dessert bowl........I was that exhausted
It was my first of 6 x RAC Rally's I did as service crew.
As can be seen in a few of those OP's photo's, '85 RAC was the last event for the Escort and Sunbeam prior to their homologation running out. We had at least 3 motorclub members all with Grp.A Sunbeam Ti's that all begged, borrowed and whatever else they could do, to raise the funds to enter the RAC that year as it was their last and likely only shot at it.
As you say, happy days.
aeropilot, Sounds as if you and I could have quite a talk about rallying in the old days. I`ve crewed in five RAC`s,and about 100 other rally`s in the UK and Europe. Just like you I was absolutely shattered at the end of the 1985 event. So much we didn't even go out to the pub !!.As you probably well know after rally party`s were legendaryI recall getting a total of 11 hours sleep between start and finish, and as you say, only one night in a bed, BnB (for us near the back) in Carlisle I think? I still get teased by some of the guys on the rare occasion we meet up for doing the comedy routine at our end of event dinner in Nottingham on the Wed eve, when I fell asleep at the dinner table and my head fell forward into my dessert bowl........I was that exhausted
It was my first of 6 x RAC Rally's I did as service crew.
As can be seen in a few of those OP's photo's, '85 RAC was the last event for the Escort and Sunbeam prior to their homologation running out. We had at least 3 motorclub members all with Grp.A Sunbeam Ti's that all begged, borrowed and whatever else they could do, to raise the funds to enter the RAC that year as it was their last and likely only shot at it.
As you say, happy days.
All this got me doing some research. The 1985 RAC rally was over 5 days, had about 170 entries, 65 special stages totaling 558 miles, with 1620 Road miles.With service crews doing over 2000 miles. No wonder we were all on our knees !!
Last years WRC Rally Wales had 20 stages covering 180 miles over 3 days,
Old Merc said:
Henri Toivonen collecting the winners trophy. As you all know sadly six months later he was gone.
It was also the end of the Group B super cars.
Should just point out a schoolboy error on my part about my earlier post, as Tom wasn't running the AE86 in '85, he was still running the older 1300 Corolla that was bought to do the '82 East African Safari Rally, and subsequently did the '84 Safari, as well as the trio of '8, '85 & '86 RAC's.
I was asked to service crew the previous year in '84 about two weeks before, but couldn't do it, as had used up all my leave by then, so made sure I kept enough back the following year to do it in '85.
The old Corolla gave up the ghost on the '86, when the gearbox exploded on the 2nd 'proper' stage of the Monday and managed to limp to service in Hexham, but without a spare gearbox, that was it.
Had to arrange a trailer to get car back to London, but we still had to then drive back to Bath to collect the stuff left at our BnB in anticipation of finishing the event!
As we had service crew passes and stuff, and as it was last event for Grp.B, we headed back from London next day to try and catch a few of the last stages in South Wales(?) before collecting our stuff from the Bath BnB and heading back to London.
Tom replaced the 1300 Corolla with an AE86 GT Twin Cam the following year, which we did three more RAC's with, finishing all three.
TVR Moneypit said:
Aloysius said:
Superb pics !
I was there too !
Me too, at the Chatsworth stages.I was there too !
As an eight year old child a practically wet myself with excitement at the sound of the screaming V6's in the 6R4's
OP, great photos, thanks for sharing.
Edited by TVR Moneypit on Sunday 18th March 01:47
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